Peace in Cambodia Attracts Tourists and Investments: PM Hun Sen

Source: FN

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that peace, and political and social stability have attracted many foreign tourists and business people to visit and invest in Cambodia, writing on his Facebook Friday.

“Peace provides golden opportunity to Cambodia in attracting tourists and foreign businesses to visit and invest in our country. May I thank all local and foreign companies for the confidence in the Royal Government and contributions to the development of Cambodia.”

Cambodia had been plagued by wars for almost three decades (1970-1998). From 1970-1975, the war killed over one million Cambodians and inflicted the most severe destruction to the country’s socio-economic infrastructure. On 17 April 1975, the regime of Khmer Republic fell. People hoped to have lived in peace to restart their livelihood. However, their hopes evaporated in the blink of an eye as they fell into a newer disaster – the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime.

Cambodia has just been fully reconciled for 20 years (1998-2018) under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s win-win policy. Peace allows Cambodia to prosper with an annual economic growth rate of about 7%.

GDP has increased from US$3.6 billion in 2000 with an average per capita income from US$288 to roughly US$24.6 billion and an average per capita income to US$1,560 in 2018 respectively.

Poverty rate has lowered from about 53% in 2004 to roughly 13.5% in 2014 and is expected to lower to around 10% in the present.

Peace allows Cambodia to change from zero trade worth to US$25,000 million per annum, of which Cambodia exports US$12,000 million worth annually; change Cambodia from welcoming zero tourists to six million per annum; change from US$200 GDP per capita to approximately US$1,600 per capita.

Once a country receiving UN peacekeeping force, Cambodia has now become a country that sends it troops to serve under the UN peacekeeping missions in many countries.

Once a backward country, economically plagued by poverty and food shortages, Cambodia has now become a country that exports rice, guaranteed food security, and is among countries with high economic growth in the world.